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2.3 Social Class
Understanding social class is the class division of society based on certain criteria, either according to religion, education, economic status, ancestry, etc.
According to Peter Saunders in Social class and stratification 1990 said that social class is determined by ones relationship to the means of production. There exist at
least two classes in any class-based society: the owners of the means of production and those who sell their labor to the owners of the means of production.Every society
always has a certain appreciation in the relevant community and every society must have something that cherishes .
Basically, Social class or simply class as in a class society is a set of concepts inthe social sciences and political theory centered on models of social
stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle, and lower classes.The theory
above support to analyse this novel because the novel has depicted glamours social life. Thus social class in this novel is too shown clearly.
2.3.1 Lower class
Lower class occasionally described as working class are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security. The term lower class also
refers to persons with low income.The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security, and an underclass—those
who are long-term unemployed or homeless, especially those receivingwelfare from the state. In the United States, the terms working class and blue-collar may refer to
employed and hard-working members of the middle-middle and lower-middle class,
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while the upper-middle class in the United States often refers to employment positions that require a college or graduate degree.
2.3.2 Middle class
The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the
lower and upper classes.One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States middle class is applied very broadly and includes people who would
elsewhere be considered working class. Middle class workers are sometimes called white-collar workers.
Theorists such as Ralf Dahrendorf have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the
necessity of an educated work force in technological economies. Perspectives concerning globalization and neocolonialism, such as dependency theory, suggest
this is due to the shift of low-level labour to developingnations and the Third World.
2.3.3 Upper class
The upper class is the social class composed of those who are rich, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth
alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the
upper class, and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the old rich as nouveau riche. In the United Kingdom, for example,
the upper classes are the aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have seats attached to them,
with the holder of the title e.g. Earl of Bristol and his family being the custodians of
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the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates,
owned and run by the title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents, or other sources wealth. In America, however, where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the
upper class status belongs to the extremely wealthy, the so-called super-rich, though there is some tendency even in America for those with old family wealth to look
down on those who have earned their money in business, the struggle between New Money and Old Money.
The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it, and are
distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates. Sometimes members of the upper class are called the one
percent.
2.4 Novel